Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

AKRON, OHIO--Construction recently
began on an addition to the Summit County Courthouse.

But the construction zone has caused people with physical disabilities,
especially those using wheelchairs, to follow a maze around and through
barriers: heavy doors, steep inclines, inaccessible parking spaces, narrow
entry ways, and confusing directions.

"You have to have at least two people with you to get in there," Meg
Rubin, whose mother uses a wheelchair, told the Akron Beacon Journal. "If
someone in a wheelchair came here by themselves, they'd have an impossible time
getting in."

While county officials say that many of the obstacles are "ADA
compliant", wheelchair users say the new route isn't very "disability
friendly".

"It's really surprising to me that the city would do this when it has
made so many strides in improving accessibility," said disability advocate
Blaine Denious. "Now what you have are improvements coming at a cost to
taxpayers because the people involved failed to talk to people who will use the
facility."

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.